1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for controlling a semiconductor laser diode and an apparatus for controlling the laser diode.
2. Related Prior Art
Since an optical output and an extinction ratio of the laser diode depends on temperatures, a specific controller will be necessary to maintain the optical output and the extinction ratio thereof to a predetermined value. The laser diode emits light by supplying a bias current and a modulation current. The bias current and the modulation current determine the output power and the extinction ratio of the laser diode. Therefore, the both currents should be adjusted in various temperatures to keep the output power and the extinction ratio. Such control to keep the output power and the extinction ratio is called as an Auto-Power-Control (hereinafter denoted by APC) operation.
In general, the optical output power and the extinction ratio of the laser diode are defined by the specification, for example, the output power is −3 dBm and the extinction ratio is 7 dB, respectively. Therefore, it is required that the laser diode must be operated by controlling the bias current and the modulation current so as to keep the output power and the extinction ratio.
In a conventional APC operation, both currents are measured at various temperatures and the values thereof are stored in storage in advance of a practical use in the field. Once the bias current and the modulation current of the laser diode are fixed, the output power and the extinction ratio are automatically determined. Therefore, when the optical output power of the laser diode is discrepant to a target power, a new combination of the bias current and the modulation current are read out from the storage and provided to the laser diode so as to compensate the discrepancy of the power and the extinction ratio.
However, the conventional method requires a large storage because various combinations of the bias and the modulation current must be stored as a reference table. Moreover, to keep the output power and the extinction ratio of the laser diode in precise must prepare the reference table with a larger size, which results in the large and complicated optical module.